FOREWORD
1. Constance Fenimore Woolson [hereinafter CFW] to Harriet Benedict Sherman, [1887], The Complete Letters of Constance Fenimore Woolson, ed. Sharon L. Dean (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012), 349–50.
2. CFW to Samuel Livingston Mather, April 10, 1880, Complete Letters, 138.
3. CFW to Samuel Mather, April 11, [1891], Complete Letters, 449.
4. CFW to unidentified recipient, [1880], Complete Letters, 136.
5. CFW to Katharine Livingston Mather, July 2, 1893, Complete Letters, 517.
6. CFW to Katharine Livingston Mather, August 20, 1893, Complete Letters, 520.
7. Lyndall Gordon, A Private Life of Henry James (London: Chatto & Windus, 1998), 217.
8. CFW to Samuel Mather, March 20, [1880], Complete Letters, 130.
9. CFW to Arabella Washburn, no date, Complete Letters, 25.
10. Gordon., 172–73.
11. Ibid., 250.
1. I discuss the critical response to her works in Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016), from which the material for this introduction as a whole is derived. “Novelist laureate” from The Boston Globe quoted in a Harper & Brothers advertisement that ran nationally after the publication of For the Major (1883) and in the back of most of her subsequent books, all published by Harper & Brothers. See also the reference to her as America’s “foremost novelist” in “Recent Fiction,” The Independent 38 (December 1886): 11; and the remark that she “easily takes the first place among American female novelists” in “Miss Woolson’s Stories,” Harper’s Bazar 19 (November 20, 1886): 758. That article continues, “Among English women George Eliot alone takes a higher rank.” Henry James, “Miss Woolson,” The American Essays of Henry James, ed. Leon Edel (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989), 164. Helen Gray Cone, “Woman in American Literature,” Century Illustrated Magazine 40 (October 1890): 927.
2. Henry Mills Alden, “Constance Fenimore Woolson,” Harper’s Weekly 38 (February 3, 1894): 113; “Constance Fenimore Woolson,” New York Tribune, January 28, 1894, 14; and Charles Dudley Warner, “Editor’s Study,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 88 (May 1894): 967.
3. M. H., Letter to the New York Times Saturday Review of Books, The New York Times, June 2, 1906, BR358; Shan F. Bullock, “Miss Woolson Had a Conscience,” unidentified newspaper clipping, August 1, 1920 (the clipping is taped into a copy of Woolson’s East Angels in the Clare Benedict Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland).
4. I discuss this phenomenon at length in Anne E. Boyd, Writing for Immortality: Women and the Emergence of High Literary Culture in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004).
5. See, for instance, Fred Lewis Pattee, A History of American Literature Since 1870 (New York: Century, 1915); Fred Lewis Pattee, “Constance Fenimore Woolson and the South.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 38 (April 1939): 130–41; John Hervey, “Sympathetic Art.” Saturday Review of Literature 12 (October 1929): 268; John Dwight Kern, Constance Fenimore Woolson: Literary Pioneer (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934); Arthur Hobson Quinn, American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey (New York: Appleton-Century, 1936); Lyon N. Richardson, “Constance Fenimore Woolson, ‘Novelist Laureate’ of America,” The South Atlantic Quarterly 39 (January 1940): 20–36; Jay B. Hubbell, “Some New Letters of Constance Fenimore Woolson,” New England Quarterly 14 (December 1941): 715–35; Van Wyck Brooks, The Dream of Arcadia: American Writers and Artists in Italy, 1760–1915 (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1958); Rayburn S. Moore, Constance F. Woolson (New York: Twayne, 1963); and Leon Edel, Henry James: The Middle Years, 1882–1895 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1962).
6. See, for instance, Sharon Dean, “Constance Fenimore Woolson and Henry James: The Literary Relationship,” Massachusetts Studies in English 7 (1980): 1–9; Sharon Dean, “Constance Fenimore Woolson’s Southern Sketches,” Southern Studies 25 (Fall 1986): 274–83; Sharon Dean, Constance Fenimore Woolson: Homeward Bound (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1995); Joan Myers Weimer, ed., Women Artists, Women Exiles: “Miss Grief” and Other Stories (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988); Cheryl Torsney, Constance Fenimore Woolson: The Grief of Artistry (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1989); Cheryl Torsney, ed., Critical Essays on Constance Fenimore Woolson (New York: G. K. Hall, 1992); Victoria Brehm, “Island Fortresses: The Landscape of the Imagination in the Great Lakes Fiction of Constance Fenimore Woolson,” American Literary Realism 22 (1990): 51–66; and Victoria Brehm, ed., Constance Fenimore Woolson’s Nineteenth Century: Essays (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001).
7. Charles Dudley Warner, “Editor’s Study,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 88 (May 1894): 967.
8. Constance Fenimore Woolson [hereinafter CFW] to Samuel Mather, December 10, [1893], in The Complete Letters of Constance Fenimore Woolson, ed. Sharon Dean (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012), 535.
9. CFW to Arabella Carter Washburn, undated fragment, in ibid., 561.
10. Inscription in Stopford A. Brooke, ed., Poems from Shelley (London: Macmillan, 1880), Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome.
11. CFW to Henry Mills Alden, January 17, 1890, in Complete Letters, 397.
12. CFW to Edmund Clarence Stedman, August 10, [1889], in ibid., 376.
13. CFW to Edmund Clarence Stedman, April 30, [1883], in ibid., 239.
14. James, “Miss Woolson,” 168.
15. CFW to Miss Farnian, April 17, 1875, in Complete Letters, 33; CFW to Arabella Carter Washburn, [1874?], in ibid., 26; and CFW to Samuel Mather, April 25, [1875], in ibid., 34.
16. CFW to Henry James, February 12, [1882], in ibid., 190.
17. CFW to James, February 12, [1882]; CFW, East Angels (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886), 356.
3 Captain Kidd: Captain William Kidd (1645–1701), a Scottish seaman who was captured in Boston and sent to England, where he was executed for murder and piracy.
4 flags: Wild irises, which possess sword-like leaves.
7 Flying Dutchmen: The Flying Dutchman was a legendary ghost ship that was forced to sail forever and never make port.
10 “In the kingdom …”: Slightly altered lines from the poem “Annabel Lee” (1849) by Edgar Allan Poe.
16 Apollyon: The destroyer or angel of the bottomless pit, from Revelation 9:11.
20 shake-downs: Beds of straw.
21 crash towels: Coarse linen towels.
21 if you sing …: Proverb meaning if you are happy in the morning, your mood will change by the evening.
22 “The heavens declare …”: The chant is adapted from the Psalms: “The heavens declare …,” 19:1; “Joy cometh …,” 30:5; “As a bridegroom …As a strong man …,” 19:5; “The outgoings …,” 65:8; “Like a pelican …Like a sparrow …,” 102:6–7.
23 Napoleon on St. Helena: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic after his defeat by the British at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He died there six years later.
24 “The moping bittern …”: Slightly misquoted lines from “The Haunted House” (1844) by the British poet Thomas Hood (1799–1845). Rather than a “bittern,” Hood writes of a “moping heron.” Woolson seems to have taken her lines from an article on bitterns in The American Naturalist in 1870 (vol. 3, p. 177).
26 a ramified answer: This wording was maintained in book and magazine versions, but Woolson may have meant “rarified.”
28 Faust: In a German legend, the scholar Faust makes a bargain with the devil: in exchange for all knowledge and earthly pleasure for a period of twenty-four years, Faust will accept eternal damnation. The most famous adaptation of the legend was the play Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; the first part was published in 1808, the second in 1832. The opera Faust by Charles Gounod premiered in 1859.
28 the Punic wars: Wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 B.C. to 146 B.C.
28 Belshazzar: Prince of Babylon in the sixth century B.C., mentioned in Daniel in the Old Testament.
29 Te Deum: A Christian hymn of praise sung to God.
30 Mount Tabor: Located west of the Sea of Galilee, Mount Tabor was believed to be the site of Christ’s Transfiguration.
31 Jacob Bœhmen …spiritualism: Jacob Boehme (1575–1624) was an untutored German mystic who believed in the divinity of humanity; his first book was Aurora (1612) or “dawn.” Chiliastic is a Greek word for the belief (also known as millennialism) that Jesus will reign for one thousand years before the day of judgment. Modern spiritualism refers to the popular nineteenth-century belief that communication with the dead was possible, usually through a spiritual medium.
31 “Much learning …”: A twist on “Much learning hath made thee mad” (Acts 26:24); the original refers to Paul.
32 Prime: William Cowper Prime (1825–1905), American journalist and travel writer, wrote I Go A-Fishing (1873), a narrative of various fishing expeditions.
33 Bret Harte’s “Melons”: In “Melons” (1870), by the American writer Bret Harte (1836–1902), a boy whistles the tune to “John Brown’s Body,” a popular song about the American militant abolitionist who raided Harper’s Ferry in 1859. The tune would become the music for Julia Ward Howe’s “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1862).
35 delaine: A high-quality wool fabric made from delaine sheep.
35 chirk: Cheerful.
37 our evening was over: When Woolson republished “St. Clair Flats” in Castle Nowhere, she deleted here a conversation between the narrator and Raymond in which they disagree about the wisdom of Roxanna and Samuel’s marriage. Raymond argues that the union of such an “ignorant, commonplace woman” and “a poetical, imaginative man” inevitably leads to misery, while the narrator believes that Samuel would be in a lunatic asylum without Roxanna’s “tender care.” He argues, “Her love for him is something sublime: her poor, plain face, her dull eyes, and her rough hands, are transformed into something higher than beauty.”
38 “He came flying …”: Adapted from Psalms 18:10.
38 Hebrew poet: King David, who composed many of the sacred poems in the Psalms.
40 “folded their tents …”: From “The Day Is Done” (1845) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).
SOLOMON
43 glow-worm lamps: Lamps made of jars containing fireflies, or glowworms.
44 “Western Reserve”: An area of 3.3 million acres in northeastern Ohio that was reserved by the state of Connecticut when it ceded its claim to the Northwest Territory in 1786. The land was largely settled by Connecticut immigrants, and was ceded to Ohio in 1800. The names in the next two sentences are various tracts in Ohio. “Moravian Lands” refers to three 4000-acre tracts of land granted to Moravian missionaries by the Continental Congress in 1787.
45 Käse-lab: Woolson probably means Käse-laib, which is German for “wheel of cheese.”
46 huts of the Black Forest: Small huts built by peasants of rough logs were common throughout the mountainous Black Forest in southwestern Germany.
47 Mound-Builders: Ancient indigenous peoples of North America who lived around the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley and built ceremonial mounds throughout the region.
47 C——: Cleveland, from which Woolson also hailed; it lies about seventy-five miles north of Zoar.
48 linsey-woolsey: A coarse fabric made of linen or cotton and wool.
48 list slippers: Slippers made from fabric edging, or selvage, which made them very quiet.
50 Sandy: Sandusky, a town on Lake Erie.
50 Queen of Sheby: An Arabian ruler mentioned in the Bible, the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon in Jerusalem, bearing great gifts and asking him to solve a number of riddles.
51 Solomon: In the Bible, Solomon was the king of Israel and the son of David. He was known for great power and wisdom, but also for idolatry. In Kings, he is described as being influenced by his wives to turn away from God. A later Old Testament book, the “Song of Solomon” or “Song of Songs,” comprises a song sung between two lovers about the joys of sexual love.
51 Judy, Ruth, Esthy: Three women who appear in the Old Testament. The Biblical story of Judith seducing and beheading Holfernes in order to save her people was portrayed many times in Renaissance art. Ruth was the great-grandmother of David. Esther, who was Jewish and known for her great beauty, married a Persian king and persuaded him to rescind an order to execute all Jews.
52 chany: China, or decorated porcelain dishes.
52 open-work stockings: Fancy stockings made of fabric with decorative openings.
52 cambric: A fine linen or cotton cloth that is tightly woven.
53 Où la vanité va-t-elle se nicher?: In French, Where is the vanity going to hide?
53 the Lorelei: The German legend of a maiden who lures sailors on the Rhine River to their deaths with her beautiful music. It was set to music many times. The opening lines cited just above—translated as, “I don’t know what it means / That I am so sad”—come from “Die Lorelei” (1824) by the poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856).
54 “She is quite sure …had her day”: From “Maud” (1855) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892). The lines read in the original: “Before I am quite sure / That there is one to love me; / Then let come what may / To a life that has been so sad, / I shall have had my day.”
54 “A man’s a man”: “A Man’s a Man for A’ That” (1795) by Robert Burns (1759–1796).
59 kobold: A household sprite from German folklore that can appear in the form of an animal.
61 my rose of Sharon: Song of Solomon 2:1: “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”
62 Tuscarora: A Native American tribe and member of the Iroquois League. The Tuscarora originally came from the Great Lakes region, and the tribe now has members in New York, North Carolina, and Canada. The name was used for place-names throughout the upper Midwest.
64 Dux nascitur: Latin for born leader.
RODMAN THE KEEPER
73 “The long years …”: Excerpted from “Spring in New England” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907), published in the Atlantic Monthly in June 1875.
76 estate with philosophic eyes: In the magazine version of the story, the following sentence appeared here: “He no longer felt warming within him his early temptations to put in the missing nail or pick up the rusting axe; ‘for if they did these things in a green tree, what will they do in a dry?’ he thought.” The quotation is from Luke 23:31.
90 Federal: A Union soldier.
90 carpet-baggers: Northerners who came to the South after the Civil War for political or economic gain, often carrying bags made of carpet; the term was pejorative.
90 pagan Chinamen: Chinese immigrants along the West Coast of the United States, many of whom worked in railroad construction. They were often portrayed negatively in the nineteenth-century press.
92 “Toujours femme varie … plume au vent”: French: “Women always vary, / He who trusts them is quite mad; / Often a woman / is only a feather in the wind.”
96 anathema-maranatha: Cursed or condemned, incurring God’s wrath; from 1 Corinthians 16:22: “If any man not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema-Maranatha.”
98 The furniture was of dark mahogany: A pier-table is made to stand against a wall between two windows. Low-down glass is a mirror that stands against the back side of the table, between the top and a shelf that is close to the ground. Hair-cloth is a stiff fabric woven of horsehair.
100 “Tell me not …”: The opening to the poem “A Psalm of Life” (1838) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).
110 at the South, all went: The following passage appears here in the magazine version, but was cut from the book version:
“Grief covers our land.”
“Yes; for a mighty wrong brings ever in its train a mighty sorrow.”
Miss Ward turned upon him fiercely. “Do you, who have lived among us, dare to pretend that the state of our servants is not worse this moment than it ever was before?”
“Transition.”
“A horrible transition!”
“Horrible, but inevitable; education will be the savior. Had I fifty millions to spend on the South to-morrow, every cent should go for schools, and for schools alone.”
“For the negroes, I suppose,” said the girl with a bitter scorn.
“For the negroes, and for the whites also,” answered John Rodman gravely. “The lack of general education is painfully apparent everywhere th[r]oughout the South; it is from that cause more than any other that your beautiful country now lies desolate.”
“Desolate,—desolate indeed,” said Miss Ward.
115 “She lived shut in …”: “Sister Saint Luke” by the statesman and poet John Milton Hay (1838–1905), written specifically for this story when it was republished in Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches.
115 Minorcan: The Minorcans are inhabitants of Minorca, one of the Spanish Balearic Islands. A large group of Minorcan indentured servants was brought to Florida in 1767 by a Scottish entrepreneur to work his indigo plantation. After much cruel treatment, they petitioned the British colonial governor in St. Augustine for their freedom, which they won, along with a tract of land on which their descendants lived for generations.
116 as Sister St. Luke: The nun is named after St. Luke, or Luke the Evangelist, the author of the Gospel according to Luke in the New Testament of the Bible. A disciple of Paul, Luke is referred to in the Bible as a physician and was regarded by Catholics as the patron saint of artists, doctors, and students.
117 first-class Fresnel: A Fresnel lens, invented by Augustin-Jean Fresnel in 1822, contained many concentric rings that reflected light for greater distances than any previous lens.
117 Pelican Island: A name invented by Woolson.
117 a hideous barber’s pole: The history Woolson describes is that of the St. Augustine lighthouse, which was completed in October 1874. It is decorated with black and white stripes to this day. It sits on Anastasia Island, which is fourteen miles long and one mile wide—about the size of Pelican Island in the story. The island was developed in the twentieth century, except for the 1500-acre Anastasia State Park.
118 Queen of the Antilles: A nickname for Cuba. The Windward Islands are those Caribbean islands of the West Indies south of Dominica, while the Leeward Islands are those north of Martinique.
118 Huguenot: The Huguenots were French Protestants who were forced to emigrate or, if they remained in France, to convert to Catholicism. A Huguenot colony was founded in present-day Jacksonville, Florida, in 1564 but destroyed by Catholic Spanish forces, who massacred their remaining troops near St. Augustine in 1565.
130 “Deep on the convent roof …”: Opening of “St. Agnes’ Eve” (1837) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892).
133 Santa Inez: Saint Agnes of Rome, patron saint of virgins, gardeners, and engaged couples, was portrayed with a lamb, as her name means lamb in Latin.
133 Santa Rufina: According to legend, Rufina and her sister, Justa, sold earthenware pottery in Seville, Spain, in the third century. They were martyred for their Christian faith when they refused to sell their vases for pagan ceremonies.
139 froward: Difficult to deal with, disposed to disobedience.
140 primary rocks: Believed to be the first rocks that formed on Earth, as they contain no organic material.
140 galleon: A big sailing ship that could carry a large cargo, as well as cannon, used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the Spanish and Portuguese for their New World expeditions.
“MISS GRIEF”
158 “When found, make a note of it”: A quotation from Dombey and Son (1848), by Charles Dickens (1812–1870).
158 Isabel: The name was Ethelind in the original magazine publication.
160 Balzac: Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), author of the sequence of novels known as La Comédie humaine and founder of French realism, was a great influence on Henry James.
160 the Furies: Goddesses of fury and revenge in Greek mythology.
161 Tullia or Lucrezia: Tullia D’Aragona (1510?–1556), Italian poet and courtesan. Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519), daughter of Pope Alexander VI and member of the ruthless Borgia family from Rome, who may have killed her second husband.
169 “Væ victis!”: Latin: Woe to the vanquished!
175 Kubla Khan: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) said he wrote the poem “Kubla Khan” (1816) under the influence of opium.
185 memento mori: Latin: Reminder of mortality.
A FLORENTINE EXPERIMENT
192 Palazzo Vecchio: The town hall of Florence, built in 1299, with a tall bell-tower.
193 the Lakes: Refers to the lakes in the north of Italy along the border with Switzerland, principally Lake Como, Lake Maggiore, and Lake Garda.
199 Roman nose: A nose with a high bridge, believed to correlate with nobility or power.
201 Boboli Garden: The formal gardens laid out behind the Pitti Palace in Florence, covering over a hundred acres.
205 an Apollo, an Endymion: Apollo was the Greek and Roman god of the sun, eloquence, poetry, knowledge, medicine, and truth. In Greek mythology, Endymion was a handsome youth desired by the moon goddess Selene.
207 Baedeker, Horner, and Hare: Baedekers were the most popular European guidebooks, produced in Germany. Horner refers to Walks in Florence, published in 1873, by Susan and Joanna Horner. Hare refers to Augustus Hare’s Cities of Central and Northern Italy, published in 1876.
207 Cascine: Florence’s largest public park, on the right, or north, bank of the Arno River.
207 Giotto and Botticelli: The painter and architect Giotto di Bondone (1266?–1337), considered the forefather of the Italian Renaissance, revived the art of painting with proportion and perspective. The early Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) had been forgotten but was rediscovered by Anglo-American critics in the nineteenth century. Both Giotto and Botticelli were favorites of Henry James.
208 the great statue of Abbondanza: The Column of Abundance (abbondanza in Italian), topped with a statue of Plenty holding a cornucopia, is at the top of the hill above the Neptune Pond in the Boboli Gardens.
208 the Duomo: The cathedral in Florence, which is known for its brick dome, the largest in the world. The building was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and completed in 1436. Its free-standing bell-tower was designed by Giotto and completed by others in 1359.
209 Santa Maria Novella: The Basilica and Cloisters of Santa Maria Novella, built in the Gothic-Romanesque style in the late thirteenth century, in the northwest quarter of Florence. In Mornings in Florence, John Ruskin attributed the fresco there of The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple to Giotto, but it is today attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494). The painting of The Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (1534–1538) by Titian (Tiziano Vecelli; 1488?–1576) is at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.
209 round Botticelli of the Uffizi: A reference to one of two Botticelli paintings, Madonna of the Magnificat (1481) or Madonna of the Pomegranate (1487).
209 one in the Prometheus room: This probably refers to Madonna and Child with Young St. John (1495?), also by Botticelli.
211 the Academy: The Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence is the home of Michelangelo’s David, which was moved there in 1873.
211 the monastery of San Marco: One of Woolson’s favorite sites in Florence, it houses a museum that includes monks’ cells decorated with frescos by Fra Angelico.
211 De Contemptu Mundi: The title of an epistle by Eucherius of Lyons (d. 449), written about 427, which denounced the vanity of the material world. Latin for “on contempt for the world.”
211 Dante’s Vita Nuova: La Vita Nuova, Italian for “the new life,” by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), published in 1295, documents his great love for Beatrice.
212 Semper Fidelis: Latin for “always faithful.” The poem is by Woolson.
221 “Madonna of the Chair”: Madonna della Siggiola (1513–1514) by Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio; 1483–1520).
221 young man in black: Portrait of a Young Englishman (1540–1545) by Titian, one of Henry James’s favorite paintings.
224 arrangements in black and white: Probably a reference to Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871) by James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), also known as Portrait of the Artist’s Mother. The painting was notorious for what many deemed its elevation of form and color over an emotional evocation of its subject matter.
225 bosky: Containing many bushes or trees.
229 Romola: The title character of the 1863 novel by George Eliot (1809–1880). Romola is set in Florence during the Renaissance; Tito is a beautiful Greek scholar with whom Romola falls in love.
230 St. Peter the Martyr: Also called Peter of Verona (1205–1252), he was a priest who was assassinated while serving as the inquisitor of Lombardy. The Triptych of St. Peter the Martyr (1429) by Fra Angelico resides at the monastery of San Marco.
230 the Michael Angelo chapel of San Lorenzo: The Medici Chapels (1521–1534) at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, or the Sagrestia Nuova (“New Sacristy”), were designed by Michelangelo (1475–1564) as a mausoleum for the Medici family.
230 beautiful Dawn …hopeless sleep in Night: In Michelangelo’s mausoleum, the tomb of Lorenzo Duke of Urbino was topped by a statue of the duke and flanked by sculptures of allegorical figures Dawn and Dusk. The tomb of Giuliano Duke of Nemours was topped by a statue of the duke and flanked with sculptures of Day and Night. Woolson said she could not judge the widely admired naked, allegorical figures, but she was deeply moved by the clothed statue of Lorenzo, whose face expressed all of the woe of humanity.
233 “A fellow-feeling”: The line “A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind,” from the English actor and playwright David Garrick’s (1717–1779) Prologue on Quitting the State (1776), was often reprinted in books of poetry and quotations.
233 the Medici: The family of bankers, princes, and popes that ruled Florence for more than three centuries, approximately five hundred members of which are buried in the crypt of the Medici Chapels. “Giovanni in his armor” refers to Ludovico di Giovanni de’ Medici, known as Giovanni dale Bande Nere (1498–1526). A Medici warrior, he was buried in his armor, although his tomb was opened and the armor transferred to the Stibbert Museum in 1857. Leonore of Toledo is Eleanor (1522–1562), wife of Cosimo I, grand duke of Tuscany.
236 Diana: Roman goddess of hunting, the moon, and childbirth, protector of women.
240 Lung’ Arno Nuovo: The new part, or continuation of the street Lungarno, or embankment of the Arno River; today it is called Lungarno Amerigo Vespucci.
240 Bellosguardo: Italian for “beautiful view,” the name of a hill outside of Florence on which Woolson would live from 1886 to 1889.
244 frescos of Masaccio at the Carmine: The Brancacci Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine is decorated with frescos by Masaccio (1401–1428), considered the first great Italian Renaissance painter.
244 a maroon-colored pamphlet: Mornings in Florence (1875–1877), by John Ruskin (1819–1900), was the most authoritative guide for English speakers to Florence’s art and architecture. Each chapter was bound separately in a red cover so that it could be carried around in one’s pocket. Woolson used Ruskin as her guidebook but ultimately found his understanding of art too limited.
245 hackmen: Taxi drivers. “Hack” is short for hackney, a carriage available to hire.
249 golconda: A source of great wealth, from the Golconda mine in India, known for its diamonds.
251 mural tablet to Giotto: A memorial plaque honoring Giotto, then believed to have been buried nearby.
255 Memorials of a Quiet Life: Title of a two-volume book (1872–1876) by Augustus J. C. Hare (1834–1903), his edition of his adoptive mother’s memoir. Hare writes in the preface, “My mother’s existence was so bound up with that of the immediate circle of her beloved ones …that the story of her life becomes of necessity that of their lives also.”
256 Mrs. Jameson and Ruskin: Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) was a novelist and art historian, author of an influential study of Christian iconography, Sacred and Legendary Art (1848). John Ruskin (1819–1900) was the most influential English art critic of the nineteenth century, author of the multivolume Modern Painters (1843–1860) and The Stones of Venice (1851–1853). His reputation had been severely damaged in the 1870s by the libel suit James McNeill Whistler brought against Ruskin for his scathing criticism of the artist’s works.
256 Tupper and Sandford and Merton: Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–1889) was a poet and author of the Proverbial Philosophy (1838), a collection of moralizing sayings that was read widely throughout the century. The History of Sandford and Merton (1783–1789) was a popular children’s book by the British author Thomas Day (1748–1789).
260 Highgate: Highgate Cemetery in north London, the resting place of the author George Eliot, pseudonym of Marian Evans (1819–1880), and many other public figures. Eliot’s novels were a great influence on Woolson.
263 “Never talk to an author about his books”: The quote is Woolson’s.
264 Sloane Street: In 1884, Woolson lived at 116 Sloane Street, South Kensington, a fashionable residential area, across from Cadogan Place Gardens.
267 Cavalleria: Cavalleria Rusticana (1890), an opera by Pietro Mascagni (1863–1945), had its first British performance in London on October 19, 1891. Set in rural Sicily, it is a passionate story of love, betrayal, adultery, and ultimately murder.
267 Vapour: There is no such novel with that title. Woolson is suggesting that the novel is insubstantial.
268 drawing of Du Maurier’s: The French-born cartoonist and writer George Du Maurier (1834–1896) was a popular illustrator for Punch, Harper’s, and other magazines.
270 water-cure: The water cure, or hydropathy, was a popular form of treatment in the nineteenth century, believed to cure many ailments. It could take the form of showers, sitz baths (in which a person sits in water up to the hips), drinking mineral waters, enemas, douches, and extended stays at spas that catered to the wealthy.
270 “Vegetubble baths and the mind-cure”: Vegetable baths were infused with aromatic herbs, seaweed, or extracts of leaves. The mind-cure, also known as the New Thought, was a forerunner to Christian Science and preached the ability of positive thinking to cure the body.
271 Lemaitre: French critic Jules Lemaître (1853–1914) collected his literary criticism in Les Contemporains (1887–1899) and his theater criticism in Les Impressions de Théâtre (1888–1898).
271 Bashkirtseff: The Ukrainian artist and diarist Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884) grew up in France and was a moderately successful artist. She kept a diary from the age of thirteen, which documents her extraordinary drive to achieve fame. It was published after her death in France in 1887 and in English translation in London in 1890.
272 Life of Louisa Alcott: Ednah Cheney’s Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals was published in Boston and London in 1889. Alcott had died in 1888.
273 “Ever be hap-pee …”: “The Pirate’s Chorus” from the opera The Enchantress (1845) by the Irish composer Michael W. Balfe (1808–1870).
274 Norteeng Hill: Notting Hill, an upper-middle-class district in Kensington.
276 lambrequins: Decorative drapery for the top of a window or a mantel.
276 Harvard Annex: Founded in 1879 to provide a rigorous college education for women, who were not allowed to attend Harvard College. Renamed the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women in 1882, it became Radcliffe College in 1894.
276 syndicate people: Newspaper syndicates sold an author’s works for concurrent publication in dailies and weeklies across the United States. Many popular authors, including Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Henry James, and Sarah Orne Jewett, wrote for the syndicates. Woolson was approached by many but declined to break her exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers to write for them, despite the much higher rates of pay they offered.
277 Gray Tucker: A name of Woolson’s invention.
279 St. James Gazette: St. James’s Gazette (the correct title, which Woolson uses elsewhere in the story), was a London evening newspaper known for its Tory, or conservative, politics and highbrow literary content.